University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Information and Library Science)

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science will create a professional development curriculum for school librarians, classroom teachers, and school literacy coaches focused on cultural competence and equity literacy. The university and its partners - the School of Library and Information Sciences at North Carolina Central University and Wake County Public Schools - will pilot the curriculum through a design-based research approach, provide support to the trained librarians and collaborators as they implement learned techniques, and create an online version of the curriculum for librarians nationwide. The project will directly educate 90 Wake County Public School librarians, classroom teachers, and literacy coaches, in employing cultural knowledge and awareness in developing effective instruction for the diverse populations of youth that they teach. The three pilot cohorts, one each comprising librarians, classroom teachers, and literacy coaches, will then be used to refine the curriculum and develop online modules that will be freely available to other school districts or individuals across the nation.